Dragon Force: So Long Ultraman
is a crossover movie between the characters of BlueArc Studios' Dragon Force, and Ultraman. It is the first outlawed "Ultraman" movie produced by BlueArc. Synopsis Protecting the earth and maintaining peace, Ultraman used to be a god-like existence for the Earth, but in recent decades, he disappeared into a mystery... The replacement for him was the elite team Dragon Force, part of the GSB Earth Security Organization. GSB has been receiving reports of global energy anomalies in the near future, and there have been huge disasters around the world. The GSB organization sent the Dragon Force to find out the causes of the energy anomalies, but unexpectedly found that the incident had a relationship with Ultraman... The unexpected encounters between the old and new generations of the Earth's guardians led to the hostile sides of life and death. In the end, is this an accident or a conspiracy, who saw the final truth? Production and Promotion Guangzhou BlueArc was granted the licence and exclusive rights to produce "Ultraman 3D Animation Movies" by long-time Tsuburaya Productions legal opponent UM Corporation, via TIGA Entertainment. BlueArc had decided to produce 6 movies. To start off the movie series, instead of coming up with something new, BlueArc recycled an older Dragon Force movie (simply titled "Dragon Force"), that was initially produced for English and Japanese audiences, but had met little fanfare and was largely unnoticed. With slight edits to the script, and replacing the initial villain's role with "Ultraman", this movie was made. On July 10, 2017, a press conference was held by BlueArc to promote the movie, where "Ultraman" (Actually a man in shorts, a mask, and a large amount of body paint) appeared along with some of the cast and the director, Tommy Wang. The Ultraman "suit"'s hideous appearance, as well as the fact that it was clearly not authorized by Tsuburaya, spawned many negative comments on multiple platforms. Reception The movie scored 2.6 out of a possible 10 based on 4551 reviews on Douban Movie's review aggregator https://movie.douban.com/subject/27045442/ (As at the time of this page's writing), with many comments expressing their dislike towards Ultraman's inclusion and portrayal in the movie. Trailers on Youtube also received the same comments, calling it a "crappy domestic ripoff". Even Ultraman Dyna star Takeshi Tsuruno, who has previously played (and continues to reprise) the role of Shin Asuka, openly expressed his disgust towards the movie and its promotional materialhttps://twitter.com/takeshi_tsuruno/status/914679581516238848, calling out the "fake Ultraman". Dragon Force series creator Kazuya Hatazawa was also disappointed in the movie, and states that he has had nothing to do with its productionhttps://twitter.com/cronogaizer/status/886471146253631489. The movie grossed $1,491,252 in its opening weekend and made a total gross profit of $6,120,728 as of October, 29, 2017.http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/intl/?page=&wk=2017W39&id=_fDRAGONFORCESOLON01. Contribution to Licensing Disputes This movie was licensed by UM Corporation and TIGA Entertainment who granted Guangzhou BlueArc/Blue Magic Culture Communications Co., Ltd. exclusive rights to produce and distribute "Ultraman 3D Animation Movies" within Mainland China, including Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan, for a period of three years, from January 1 2017 until December 31 2019http://ultra.wikia.com/wiki/File:TIGALicense.jpg. This was all done without the permission or knowledge of Tsuburaya Productionshttps://m-78.jp/news/n-4899/, further fueling the then-ongoing licensing disputes for Ultraman internationally. A dragon that appears in the movie also uses the roars of the Legendary Pictures Godzilla. Neither Toho or Legendary Pictures seemed to have taken action against BlueArc, however. One of the trailers of the movie also used footage from the trailers of Ultraman X and Ultraman Orb, which UMC and affiliates, in any way, did not have the rights or permission to use. Tsuburaya Productions released the following statement regarding the movie: On November 20, 2017, through a Los Angeles court ruling by Judge Andre Birotte Jr, Tsuburaya won the lawsuit against Chaiyo and affiliate groups, which in turn banned the film to be released worldwide. BlueArc's website mentions that this movie is "Part 1"https://web.archive.org/web/20181230125306/http://www.bluearc.com.cn/dhzp/index_8.aspx?lcid=6, meaning that they were going to make a movie series out of these characters. However, with the recent court rulings, it can be assumed that the entire project was scrapped, until a live event revealed that a sequels was in production. There is also a trailer dubbed in English, implying that they are trying to bring the movie to an international market.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ON6uLfz-ypA In late September 2018, the sequel movie Dragon Force: Rise of Ultraman was announced for release on January 18, 2019. Cast * : * : * : * : * : *Maggie: * : * : * : Theme Song *I Saw You In A Poem (我在诗里看到了你) Wǒ zài shī lǐ kàn dàole nǐ **Artist: Wowkie Zhang Gallery DragonForcePoster3.png|"Life and Death Uncertainty" poster DragonForcePoster.jpg|"Crystal Dispute" poster DragonForcePoster4.png|"DNA Mystery" poster DragonForcePromo.jpg|Promotional poster DragonForcePromoPoster.png|Ditto DragonForceSplash.jpg|Title card UMCLicense.png|An excerpt from the credits DragonForceCopyright.png|Bad news TIGALicense.jpg|Worse news 201807051434493449.jpg DragonForceThing.jpg BluArcSLU.jpg Trailer 钢铁飞龙之再见奥特曼！Dragon Force So long Ultraman! Trailer References Category:Movies Category:Productions Category:Dragon Force Movie Series Category:Outlaw Content Category:Team-Ups